Are you willing to avail a scholarship program that will identify your inner talent and groom you accordingly? National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) is a national-level examination conducted in India for such a purpose.
The purpose of NTSE is to hand-pick academically and intellectually bright students from class 10th for scholarships. The idea behind this exam is to encourage talented students and promote a sense of academic excellence in the school education system in India.
The NTSE exam is conducted in two stages:
Read on to know more about NTSE below.
The NTSE is one of the most popular exams conducted by the States / UTs and NCERT in India. It aims to offer financial assistance to deserving candidates in class 10. Following is the proposed scholarship amount to be given to the selected candidates.
Students who will qualify for both stages will be granted an NTSE scholarship of Rs. 1,250 a month during the entire period of education from class XI and XII. A sum of Rs. 2,000 will also be granted to students for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Please Note: The above NTSE scholarship amount will get renewed for a student upon the following conditions.
The NTSE 2021 dates for the Stage 2 exam are given below:
Only students of 10th standard are eligible to appear for the exam. Stage I of the exam is conducted by the Statue / UT under which the school falls. Students from Open or Distance Learning institutions are also eligible to appear for the exam. If you qualify for Stage I, the state / UT will recommend your candidature to the NCERT for the Stage II evaluation.
As on date, 2000 scholarships will be awarded in the country with the following reservation criteria:
NCERT conducts NTSE for students studying abroad at the 10th standard. These students from foreign schools are eligible to appear directly for the stage – 2 exam, getting an exemption from the State-level exams. The students studying abroad must have scored 60 percent marks in aggregate in the previous annual exam.
One can apply for the exam through offline or online mode.
To apply offline, one has to visit the concerned offices of the respective State/UT and contact the liaison officer. The form must be duly filled in and submitted before the deadline to the concerned officer. Any wrong information can result in the cancellation of the candidature for the exam.
The online application forms can be downloaded from the official NCERT website (http://www.ncert.nic.in). On the official page, one can easily find the option “National Talent Search Examination” in the “Programmes” menu at the top of the page.
There may be two phases for the State Level test : (A) Mental Ability Test (MAT) to evaluate the psychometric abilities of a student and, (B) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to measure a student’s inclination towards the school subjects and learning. Students successfully clearing the State Level test are to be nominated for the final test to be conducted by NCERT.
The NTSE Admit Card for the stage 1 exam will be sent by post while the NTSE Hall Ticket for the stage 2 exam will be available on the official website.
The candidates selected by their respective State / UTs based on the performances in the Stage I test are considered eligible to appear for the National Level Exam.
No fixed syllabus has been prescribed for the NTSE. The questions and topics of the exam will be at par with the level of intellect in a class 10th student. A booklet called “Learn about the Test” with information about expected topics is available on the NCERT site.
In the Mental Ability Test (MAT), there will be 100 multiple choice questions with four alternatives in each question. Candidates will be marking the answers on the OMR sheet. Each question shall carry 1 mark.
The Scholastic Ability Test (SAT) consists of 100 multiple choice questions with four alternatives in each question. There will be 40 questions from Science, 40 from Social Sciences and 20 will be from Mathematics. The answers must be marked on the OMR sheet.
The NTSE 2021 result for the state-level exam is already available on the official website. The result of the stage 2 exam will be out after 13 June 2021. The scholarship award will be awarded based on the combined scores of MAT and SAT. The names of the candidates will also get published on the NCERT website: www.ncert.nic.in.
A merit list is prepared by the State / UT to determine the minimum qualifying marks in both the tests.
For the General and OBC category, the qualifying marks is 40 percent For SC/ST/Differently abled candidates, the marks requirement is 32 percent.
That’s all about NTSE for now! For more information, visit the official website. The above information will be a perfect guide for students in classes 9 and 10 to plan for this exam in the future. We wish you all the best!